234 ERRONEOUS IDEAS ON INFANT MORTALITY 



country homes for the care of the children of the poor during 

 the summer months. Have you ever analyzed the list of these 

 institutions in your city? You may find many that will give a 

 day's outing and a few who take many well children over the 

 age of 5 to 10 years for one or two weeks at the shore or coun- 

 try but how many have you that take sick children? Philadel- 

 phia has but two, and these have limited capacities. I believe it 

 is a great mistake to care only for the well child and ignore the 

 sick. Two great factors in controlling infant mortality proper 

 hospital care for the sick of the poor, and fresh air at a seashore 

 or country home with medical care are found wanting. 



While not desiring to discuss the value or non-value of the 

 many advertised baby foods, their enormous sale is a direct evi- 

 dence of the physician's neglect to nourish the infant. This "Food 

 for All Babies" seems to save the doctor and the mother con- 

 siderable energy in thinking out how the baby should be fed. 

 It is easier for the doctor to order a bottle of Blank's Baby Food 

 and have the mother follow the directions printed on the label 

 of the bottle than it is to study the individual baby and calculate 

 how much cream, milk, water and sugar of milk is needed. It 

 is easier for the mother to take a teaspoonful of powder out of 

 a bottle, add hot water and serve, than to measure accurately 

 milk, cream, sugar, etc. It is human to try to save labor. In 

 recent years several large cities have tried to overcome this hap- 

 hazard feeding, and at the same time save labor for the mother, 

 by establishing modified milk stations. The methods used by 

 most of these stations are so faulty as to make them dangerous 

 under certain circumstances. But few of these milk stations have 

 a medical clinic at which the child is examined, formula pre- 

 scribed by a physician and results noted. Most stations dispense 

 the milk indiscriminately according to age or the wishes of the 

 mother. An ignorant mother, knowing she can get either for- 

 mula number one, which is dispensed in three-ounce bottles, or 

 formula number four, in six-ounce bottles, for 1 cent a bottle, 

 believes it is economy to buy the six-ounce bottle. One is whole 

 milk and the other but one-fourth solids. It is needless to state 

 what happens. Again there are a limited number of formulas 

 or combinations, so the scope of proper feeding is limited. I 

 have seen the woman in charge of a milk depot dispense a dif- 

 ferent formula to a mother, who had an order from a physician, 

 because she was out of the formula requested. Few of the 

 stations are open Sundays, and dispense on Saturday morning 

 two days' supply. The food is taken to homes without any 

 means of refrigeration. Pasteurized milk, even one hour off ice, 

 is a more dangerous article than other kinds of milk. Some of 

 the abuses could be remedied by refusing to dispense milk from 

 stations without an order from a physician or dispensary. 



